Win/Batch: display progress of work

[lwkt]

Hi there,

I am using batch file to collect files generated by other application.

The elapse time of the collection process may take for 10 to 30 minutes depends
on the number of files generated.

I have told users to wait for the completion of process with following echo commands: -

===================================================

ECHO Collecting information... Please be patient...
ECHO.
ECHO Will take 10 to 30 minutes...

===================================================

Is it possible to display some work in progress message or
putting a continuous ...... sign on the screen during the running of collection process?

Thanks,
Thomas

[smeezekitty]

not without seeing your batch code

[lwkt]

Here is the code:

============================================
@ECHO OFF.
EXTRACT.exe "File *.txt" > "date_time*.txt"
rem
ECHO Collecting information... Please be patient...
ECHO.
ECHO Will take 10 to 30 minutes...
rem
pause
exit
===============================================

Please be noted that EXTRACT.exe is an
executable that use to collect required information
and translate to text files. It is come with a
proprietary application.

Thanks,
Thomas

[smeezekitty]

since the program is operating in the background
i dont think you can show progress
the best you can do is this have a spinning indicator like this
| then / then -- then \
even that would be hard
maybe salmon_trout aka virus accuser or batch file basics may help

[lwkt]

Sorry, it is a foreground process.
The correct code is: -

============================================
@ECHO OFF.

ECHO Collecting information... Please be patient...
ECHO.
ECHO Will take 10 to 30 minutes...
rem
EXTRACT.exe "File *.txt" > "date_time*.txt"
rem
pause
exit
===============================================

Spinning indicator is fine. At least it shows
the collection process is still running.

Thanks,
Thomas

[BatchFileBasics]

it should be pretty straight forward.
it would help if some one could extend my knowledge of making multi line variables...
"%var%" = Hello
               there

but this is what i got so far

Code: [Select]

@echo off
set msgg=Collecting information... Please be patient...
set dly=Ping localhost -n 2 -w 1000 ^>nul ^& cls
EXTRACT.exe "File *.txt" > "date_time*.txt"
:wait
%dly%
echo %msgg% \
%dly%
echo %msgg% ^|
%dly%
echo %msgg% /
%dly%
echo %msgg% -
goto wait
OOPS
new change of code, forgot most important piece "EXTRACT.exe "File *.txt" > "date_time*.txt""

[Salmon Trout]

Instead of passing a wildcard to Extract.exe and leaving it to finish, can't you pass every single file name you want it to process, one by one? If you counted them first, you could show a done/to do figure e.g. 1/127, then 2/127 then 3/127 etc (Or calculate percentage done)

[BatchFileBasics]

great idea 

sadly i must continue this is the morning

[smeezekitty]

try this

Code: [Select]

echo off
cls
set /A files=0
echo please wait a few min
for %%f in (*.txt) do set /A files=%%files+1
set /A _done=0
for %%x in (*.txt) do (
cls
EXTRACT.exe "File %%x" > "date_time%%x.txt"
echo %%_done of %%files done
set /A _done = %%_done+1
)


[Salmon Trout]

smeezekitty, a reasonable first effort.  But. you are getting ordinary %variables% and single letter loop variables confused. What kind of animal is %%files? And a bit of delayed expansion is needed too. Maybe you could try the script out on some dummy files before posting?

[smeezekitty]

i tired it
and it printed the variable name instead of printing there value
why is that?
it should have worked

[smeezekitty]

ok i think i got it figured out it seemed to work but i am not completely sure

Code: [Select]

echo off
cls
set /A files=0
echo please wait a few min
for %%f in (*.txt) do set /A files=%files%+1
set /A _done=0
for %%x in (*.txt) do (
cls
echo %_done% of %files% done
set /A _done=%_done%+1
EXTRACT.exe "File %%x" > "date_time%%x.txt"
)


[lwkt]

Thank you for your suggestions.

However, the number of files that Extract.exe would be generated were not constant.
The suggestions from Salmon and Smeezekitty are not fit for my case.

BatchFileBasics' suggestion sound interesting but the code
just putting my program into endless loop of spinning
indicator.  Any idea about the problem?

Thanks,
Thomas

[smeezekitty]

no
it should work
because it counts the files in the directory before it runs extract
meaning you could have 1 10 or 1000 files it would still work fine

[lwkt]

Smeezekitty,

Your code works perfect if we know the total number of files in the directory.

However,  the function of  Extract.exe is to extract data from some anolog logging devices and then convert to text files. The amount of files generated depends on the data that collected before the requested period.
Therefore, the number of files in the collected folder is unknown before Extract.exe is being run.

My purpose of using progress indicator is to indicate that process of collection and data convertion is still running. Telling user to be patient.

Thanks,
Thomas